Pennsylvania's state government finances are seeing more warning signs.

The Department of Revenue said this week that first quarter tax collections ran 3 percent below estimate, or $218 million behind.

The department says it's not sure why revenues are lagging and that it is concerned about the magnitude of the shortfall. However, it also says it's still early in the 2016-17 fiscal year that began July 1 and it notes that September's sales and use tax collections were 4.6 percent above the same month last year.

It says that suggests that shortfalls won't continue throughout the remainder of the fiscal year.

In the meantime, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's administration has borrowed $1.6 billion from the state treasury to keep the government's main bank account from going below $0.